I'm not gonna make a video about the recently revealed 1.4 stuff but it looks SUPER EXCITING My boy Chongyun finally getting some love lets goooo 2nd best part is definitely the instrument
@@alexplayer77 funny how Bennet, the unlucky boii is so love by the community while Chongyun, the hardworking boii who want to become exorcist for his hard work instead of body condition is dislike. all characters deserve to be love! 🥺💙
Thank you! I’ve been wondering about this, because butterflies keep showing in other media like RE:Zero etc, and kept thinking if it has anything to do with afterlife after I saw Hu Tao. Thanks for letting us know 🙌🏼
Hu Tao is one of the first female characters in this game which I have genuinely loved the design of. Both her costume design, and her personality design
Hu Tao is one of the few Liyue characters that embodies a lot more of traditional Chinese aesthetics (except the shorts but hey thighs save lives) so I appreciate her a lot for that and super kudos on analyzing her name correctly. It bothered me a bit because English only players weren't privy to the meaningful name but I didn't think it was worth correcting people on. Liyue is still pronounced incorrectly even by the VAs so I guess it's better to let it be the unofficial pronunciation in English. Anyway, thanks a million for putting out a video so at least the info is out there!
yea my friends and i know the correct pronunciation for the words but its too hard for our tongue, so we just speak the easy way as long its understandable, same as few characters in the game like Diona and Diluc
the second flower is actually a chrysanthemum and not a spider lily but i’d see how you would get them confused lmao lilies and chrysanthemums are also common funeral flowers in china, chrysanthemum’s being the go-to flower ^^
It's a little strange how thin they drew it, as chrysanthemums are typically bulky flowers-- at least the one's I've seen for shrines/funerals. Even the spider variation seems more luscious...
@@planted101 actually chrysanthemums have many varieties, and some have petals that look more like this, less bunched up... My guess is that they chose this design to make it more distinguishable, the clothes move a lot and fuller petaled ones might have just resembled a white blob when the character's moving
I once read that, on her closing chain finisher, the small pose she does (where she puts her hands together) is a gesture with connotations to "passing away" in Taoism. It's something I read on twitter, and Twitter is Twitter, so take it with a large lump of salt because I can't confirm it.
"往生"(Wang sheng) actually means more than just death, it means "the transformation of mortal realm into another", thereby relieving one's soul from mortal limitations and suffering and entering a happier, better realm beyond life. In which, it's actually a positive perspective to look at one's "passing away". Given the context where Hu Tao Only does that hand gesture after she Finishes her attacks(the game assumes you've completed the battle and executed every single enemy) from the way I understand it... That shows Hu Tao actually Values the lives of her enemies and does the hand gesture("合掌/合十", He Zhang/He Shi) shows it as a form of respect and prays their souls may relieve from mortal suffering and entering a happier, better realm beyond life.
Hi! Uh so for any non Chinese or are just not aware Taoism is like a tradition or culture 1 or 3. Its all around idea if i’m not mistaken is living a simple life while being selfless and practicing simplicity.
Yeah it's true.You can also see the gesture in her pv.(In fact I'm right a native Chinese who see the video on bilibili and come to tell about the "Wang Sheng"gesture)
There's actually another Easter egg for the 十只兔子 song (10 Rabbits), I saw it on another comment here: ( czcams.com/video/GMUI8eopuJk/video.html ) Also, in the Chinese version of Hu Tao's PV, instead of saying "because they want to be seelies when they grow up" she actually says "Why are butterflies our guide? It's because their surname is also Hu!", a word play on the Chinese word, Hudie (蝴蝶) which has the same pronunciation as Hu in Hu Tao
The same thing goes for the Japanese trailer where she says butterfly (chouchou) can also be called kochou which shares the same kanji as her Hu and so she feels a connection to them.
i love how in depth mihoyo goes when developing characters, there's so many layers its mindblowing. thanks for taking your time for breaking it down for those of us who do not have the brain capacity to do That and in such a simple way. i'm obsessed with your content!!
Its as lazy cheap and braindead to instead of putting effort where it actually matters waste it on naming and costume designing and then all characters look still pain to look at and the same and also almost naked with loli bodie anyway
Even if I'm not going for her and instead waiting for a rerun, I really like her personality. Plus her design, especially her eyes are cute. Not to mention all of her VAs really bring out her personality.
Another interesting thing about Hu tao that nobody talks about (probably because it's such an obvious thing) is her vision being pyro, this seems very fitting for her considering cremation is a thing.
Fun fact, Red spider lily is known as 彼岸花 bi’an hua in Chinese, which literally means “flower that grows on the other side/bank”. In Chinese mythology, the places near the edge of the world of the dead and life are filled with this type of flower.
7:22 this hand gesture she makes is actually a symbol representing 往生 (wang sheng, same as funeral parlor name) in Chinese Daoism, she’s basically telling us to die lmao also, the joke about Seelies and butterflies was originally a pun on her surname in Chinese (“hu die” are butterflies in Chinese), they obviously had to change it for english audiences though
From another perspective, the hand gesture "合掌/合十" she make can also be represented as a form of greeting and respect in Chinese Buddhism, which also provides an image of humility. However, this hand gesture, "合掌"(He Zhang) Did Not originate from Buddhism, but rather Hinduism, which later widely used in regular Buddhist mannerism. In Hinduism, the right hand is considered as a "sacred" hand, while the left hand is considered as a "dirty/non-sacred" hand. Hence, they have different uses for each hand with a hidden meaning. However, once both hands was Combined together, it combines the Duality(both sacred and non-sacred aspect) of humanity itself, where it becomes a representation of the most fundamental and most truthful form of humanity, to show that they have nothing to hide.
actually in chinese taoism, peach wood 桃木 is a superb material for making tools to fight against evil spirits, like peach wood sword 桃木劍which is a very famous weapon in the category. HuTao’s symbol is peach blossom, so it resembles her born ability to ward off evil. Peach also symbolises immortality and long life, good example would be the tradition of eating peach shaped buns called 長壽包 on birthdays or important events. Also, I think Hu Tao’s tao is a smart word play cuz it can mean peach 桃 in chinese and resembles taoism in english.
Her family symbol is a burning flower. It represents her wildfire nature of the cycle of life from death. Another thing to consider is HuTao is super old. She became funeral director as a teenager, but states that the years have flown by since. Her youthful appearance is most likely a result of the same magic she uses in battle to absorb her enemy's spirits to heal herself. She's a really grim character.
@@madmantheepic7278 Canonically her age is not given anywhere. The only reference you get is in her friendship 5 dialogue where she says she "Took over the crematorium from her family as soon as she could, and the years have just flown by since."
@@saibaepsilon still a stretch to say that she can extend her life using powers given by mere visions, her lore suggests the only power that was passed down through her lineage was the ability to cross “the border” and nothing resembling life stealing powers. Let’s also consider the fact she hates Baizhu for trying to obtain immortality - ie. trying to extend his life, all of that concludes that Hutao either don’t have such powers or even if she had, she wouldn’t use it to lengthen her life.
That absolutely makes no sense. Hu Tao became the Leaders of the parlor in very early age and some years have passed, which doesn't imply her being "super old". And you clearly don't understand Hu Taos character at all. Eternal life is the farthest away from Hu Tao's interest. She lives everyday confronting deaths and she herself said that the living and dead should be separated. She values life just as much as death and she seeks satisfaction from ghosts being able to leave the living world with no regrets. So why by all means would she be interested in a long or eternal life?? She even dislikes Baizhu for seeking that wish and she wanted to bury Qiqi because she is initially dead.
Since your analysis about Xiao's design and others Genshin characters, I've been following your channel. It's amazing how much symbolism you can find and history you can find on those little details.
Hu Tao's twin tails, loose sleeves, and split tail coats also make her silhouette look like butterfly wings when she's in motion. (sprinting, jumping, gliding, etc.) The two straps behind her hat serves as the butterfly's antennae. Taking motion into account when designing a character is always a huge plus. Her design is currently the most creative imo.
Well, what you said could be true but I don't think it was that complicated. The loose sleeve thingy is actually very common in traditional chinese costumes. The straps behind her hat are also considered standards to the hats of chinese government offcials in the time of Imperial China.
6:32 Yes it is carefree but her free hand is being used as a counterbalance to when she fights, also the way she switches hands constantly mid-combo makes each attack really fluid.
sorry for my bad English。harmony hexagram hat means“乾坤泰卦帽”in chinese，“泰卦”is consists of“乾”and“坤”，both 乾 and坤 are consist of 3“爻”(阳：ー阴：--)，add to 6，meanwhile，“泰卦”means “harmony”。so you might be confused by the translation
i really need more people to look at this game and analize it in its art and desing department (also music and shit) because no one talks about it in depth, great vid
As a person who major in China Studies, I have to say your work was so perfectly done, espeacially the part you analyzed the divinatory symbol from Yijing. These effort made your video better than presentations done by some of my classmates lol. Many thanks for your sharing, that is really interesting.
Hu Tao‘s design is one of the things i love most about her. Iam so in love with the flowers and butterflies in her animations and her dash is sooo smooth i‘m glad she is my main
1. Hu is just a common surname in Chinese, I doubt it's used to implying anything 2. Tao usually means "桃花", Peach blossom. And I would argue the "plum blossom" on her hat was peach, so was the shape of her pupil. Note that neither peach nor plum is directly related to funerals in Chinese culture 3. Her ascension material silk flower looks very close to the "red spider lily" aka "higan flower" or "彼岸花" in Chinese 4. I agree that reusing animations is not necessarily a bad thing, but her polearm clipped through her sleeve on weapon page. And this is a bad thing 5. The Origin of Hilitune is not a real "nursery rhyme" in China. In fact, it was an online "dark fairytale" story and went viral in China ~10 year ago. The rabbit story was intentionally made “猎奇” (strange or absurd so people would be curious) and pretended to be a challenging detective story (thus you see many people explaining the story even now). But in reality, it was just a boring and easy (and stupid) dark story that meant to be a clickbait
No. 5 tho, since it's not actually a nursery rhyme, but rather just an internet dark story gone viral actually fits the lore perfectly since in genshin, hu tao is the one that made this song and somehow it gets viral too. Viral enough to reach dusky ming, before she died years ago. I wonder when did she died, because this might be an overlook from the game developers if dusky ming died years before hu tao even born yet somehow knew about this song anyway. Or I'm overthinking it and it's just that the song is so catchy even a ghost remembered it.
@@sbagas8369 I agree it fits HuTao, and I'm not sure whether Ming learned it before she died (so there's a possible answer). However, I hate that rhyme so much because I was sooo fed up, just like when you see a really bad and really old meme suddenly get popular again. Every time I hear it in game, I remembers how annoying those was. Also, it was a bad rhyme for 2 reasons: 1. it's not appealing to listen to. 2. ppl was eager to show off that they're not too stupid (say, if you ask how many rectangles in "田", it's not hard, but ppl really want to show off that they found more than 5)
@@FelixFU_v2 you mean "squares"? Because by definition there are definitely more than 5. Also, reusing memes is only condidered annoying in China. 外国并没有玩烂梗的说法。
As for the Harmony Hexagram Hat, I would like to make a small contribution: The I Ching hexagram mentioned here is not the 13rd one, but rather the 11th one. I can see how the English translation can misdirect people really bad, since the two's meanings have quite subtle difference. The 13rd one means "harmony between people", or perhaps "great fellowship", while the 11th one means "harmony between heaven and earth", or perhaps "everything goes smoothly". The Chinese version clearly stated the hat's name as 乾坤泰卦帽, lit. "The Hat with the Hexagram of Heaven and Earth". This possibly goes with Hu Tao's claim that this hat will bring good fortune to her and her parlor, as the hexagram itself would predict. The number 13 should mean nothing here, since for Chinese the unlucky number is actually 4 (which in Chinese sounds like "death"), 13 is only unlucky for Catholics.
Amazing video! I didn't notice the "soul out of body" effect on opponents hit by her elemental burst before. Nice find! On the butterfly lore, Hu Tao actually made a joke about her own name in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean videos because the similar pronunciations of "butterfly" and "Hu Tao" in these three languages. The joke cannot be replicated in English so they changed it into a seelie joke instead. There's no seelie references in C/J/K versions of the video at all.
One thing most people don't notice is that between her basic attacks she drops the spear sometimes, for example when she slams the spear into the ground, she leaves the spear mid-air, makes a spin and catches it to slam it to the ground, I feel Hu tao's basic attacks more like a dance
Wow,,,, I love this type of content. Dissecting a character to this depth is just bravo fr. Hu Tao immediately became my favorite after I read her lore before she even got released, always found it so fascinating how her talents/skills also were so fitting to her theme of 'the circle of life and death'.
Thank you this just a makes me love hu tao even more even though I’m not pulling for her, honestly I love all the characters. Thank you for taking time to make this video!
往生堂, wangsheng parlor, actually has very deep religious meaning. 往生wangsheng refers to those who dies, they will go another realm of joy and happiness, aka Buddhist heaven. But this is the highest achievement of any Buddhist.
0:59 When i heard that Hú means Recklessly, Foolishly, or Wildly, i immediately remembered that Staff of Homa's Passive is called "Reckless Cinnabar" , so i guess the staff really is meant for Hu Tao
I really love the fact that Genshin characters' design and lore really influence their Moveset. During Xiao's Ult, he recieves damage overtime. Mihoyo did this not only to "balance" his gameplay, but also because of his Karma based on his lore
I pulled for her and i gotta say her mechanic is very challenging specially on mobile but I've never regretted it. I gotta say i never thought that I'll fall in love with the same character twice specially after her story quest.
For people confused about what the heck was happening in the video where the ten rabbits song was playing, It's actually recorded footage from a game by another Chinese developer named "Identity V", the game collabed with Persona and Danganronpa which is why you could see them
wow, I've been using her ever since her banner dropped but I never noticed how enemies souls leave them briefly, that's such a cool detail!! I love how much detail went into Hu Tao in general, it makes me love her just that much more. thank you for this video!
you're one of my favorites now lol im so glad that i'm not the only one who reads into every character, their lore, their design, and their gameplay. it gives me a sense of satisfaction when i know where characters come from and why they are the way they are. the thought process behind the stories and characters in genshin is amazing jdsfksd.
Another fun detail is how Hu Tao's birthday is on the 15th of July, because the 15th day of the 7th month of the Lunisolar calendar is that of Ghost Day (鬼节), where the spirits of the dead come out from the lower realm to visit the living. It's also possibly why Qiqi's name directly translates to Seven-seven, since the seventh month is the ghost month.
The c1-c6 constellation names in the original Chinese was also a poem about funeral cremation, or more specifically mourning and remembrance of the deceased. In short poem form it describes a butterfly being attracted to the flowerbed of the dead and burning along with it, with the butterfly being a symbolism of someone being at a funeral of their loved one, who witness and goes through the process of the final sendoff, where in the mourning and unwillingness to depart a little part of themselves is also carried away by the passing of a loved one.
I absolutely love all the detail poured into the genshin characters, especially with Hu Tao. I absolutely love all the symbolism in her design. So much love has been poured into this game
wow, obviously I'm blown away by the amount of thought put in these characters but I'm even more blown away by the animations, like what you mentioned how Xiao holds his hand near his chest like in realistic martial arts, while Hu tao stretches it and stuff like that. Insanely good video! you're absolutely my favourite genshin youtuber :)
After browsing through FB and getting all annoyed at people who are complaining about not enough freebies from the game, I am absolutely thankful to have watched this video. Thank you for appreciating the kind of effort and details going into this free to play game. Even I, as a Chinese, would never have known about the hexagram thing if you hadn’t brought it up. ❤️
@@Cross-hx1wp haha, i'm there for the funny videos and stuff. but occasionally the toxic stuff comes on your wall on somewhere in the comments. I just happened to see one today while scrolling fb, so I immediately left fb and came to youtube and saw this video. Made my day better.
another thing in hu tao’s elemental burst is that when the ghost appears, it has a question mark to the right of its head. this was a very interesting video as I didnt realize most of these things，and i am a HUGE hu tao simp. keep up the good work!
You forget about the most important thing, in 7:23 look at HuTao hand that's is the hand sign from Taoism call 往生印 wang sheng yin that's mean the hand sign of dead
Recently I read an analyse from China fan group, telling how Liyue Harbor is distributed according to Yijing and Bagua, and I would like to make a video too😁 just tell people some interesting things in Genshin.
Since people already did the chinese version, in the Japanese version of the seelie joke she says that "Butterflies (chouchou) are also called "kochou" so she feels a connection to them. This id probably because kochou (胡蝶) shares the first character in Hu Tao's (胡桃) name.
This video is another reminder I need to grind my Hu Tao. I was missing a bunch of the ascension mats but I finally got a good set of artifacts for her.
Thank you for your video. As a Chinese, I just want to point out that the second flower on Hu Tao’s cloth is not spider lily. It’s chrysanthemum. In my impression, chrysanthemum is the only flower used on funerals in China traditionally. If you search for some pictures of chrysanthemums, you will find that they are more consistent with the patterns. Chrysanthemums also appears on other Wangsheng staffs’ cloth.
And for spider lily, although now I know it’s also a flower representing death, I think most Chinese learned this by Japanese animation just like me. Actually, it’s a symbol that we rarely use in China.
Wow, I must say all the analyzing videos you’ve done are just incredible, but I wanna add one thing that her constellation names in Chinese are literally a complete poem and it tells a story as well, and I don’t think they did a good job on translating them, but I can’t blame them because I know how hard it is to translate, not to mention it’s a poem, one of the hardest to translate. For example her first constellation is called ‘crimson bouquet’, it only covers the meaning of the first 3 character of the Chinese version, which has 7 characters.
Man...this made me very happy because i know how hard it is to design a character and full on background stories. Im glad you took time to research on her design and everything else!!
After watching this video and the other video of you explaining how much goes into making a genshin character I am super surprised on how many they released so far. Also I just wanna say I am so glad you are covering lore and character design stuff for genshin because I really love that part of the game and no one talks about it.
5:01 the flower on the left is most probably red spider lily which symbolize death, especially in japan and china, and would make perfect sense with lilies on the right side symbolizing life and rebirth as you said.
I love these specifically because they can also help other character design artists figure out ways to design their own characters, most of the time i add on details without much rhyme or reason and finding such intricate connections like the ones in this video to make a perfectly referenced character is much more difficult than many are led to believe. I aspire to get to this level of storytelling with my designs, it really gets me excited to learn more about a character when so much is told from their looks alone.
daaamn I like that connection you made between her fluctuating health and the cycle of life and death. super cool how they incorporated the theme into her playstyle.
knowing that hu tao's hilitune is based off of creepy songs in other languages makes me really with they went with ring around the rosie for the english translation instead lol
One detail I found after I watched this video is that when looking Hu Tao from her back, there are symmetrical sides (two attachment from her hat, two bang of her hair and her clothes also split into two side) which represent butterfly.
One thing I don't see a lot of people talking about is her black nail polish, which is a taboo I usually hear about during the Hungry Ghost Festival. Basically this festival is when ghosts and spirits from the lower realm (or hell) visit the living, and it's discouraged to wear black nail polish as it is said that only the dead have black nails. So they could mistake you for one of their own and drag you down with them. Plus, black is seen as a colour of bad luck in China (and other Asian cultures), but I guess its fitting for Hu Tao.
i think the reason why the song plays over gameplay of identity v ( 10:12 ) is because the game is popular in china and is a horror game similar to dead by daylight. never thought id see it, though.
So about her animation where her burst swoop the enemy's soul, i think when swiping a ruin guard/hunter, there's no soul coming out, means that ruin guard isn't a living creature
I'm not gonna make a video about the recently revealed 1.4 stuff but it looks SUPER EXCITING
My boy Chongyun finally getting some love lets goooo
2nd best part is definitely the instrument
Exactly he so underrated
I cant wait for the instrument XD
I hope they allow us to bind keys to the notessss
truee!! he is so underrated and some players don't like him in coop bcos of his skill 😪
I got Chongyun to Frienship 10 and he really deserves more love. He has some Bennet level luck sometimes.
@@alexplayer77 funny how Bennet, the unlucky boii is so love by the community while Chongyun, the hardworking boii who want to become exorcist for his hard work instead of body condition is dislike. all characters deserve to be love! 🥺💙
Dont forget that in most asian traditions butterflies are seen as the souls of the deceased which are reincarnated to visit their loved ones
Thank you! I’ve been wondering about this, because butterflies keep showing in other media like RE:Zero etc, and kept thinking if it has anything to do with afterlife after I saw Hu Tao. Thanks for letting us know 🙌🏼
I thought that tradition is exclusive to the philippines :OO
@@seanpaul9509 not really, China has this tradition as well.
@@seanpaul9509 on Indonesian to, when butterfly come into house my grandparents said that it was one of my dead relative that visit me
Other cultures portrayed them as collectors of souls
Hu Tao is one of the first female characters in this game which I have genuinely loved the design of. Both her costume design, and her personality design
That's why i rolled for her, she just looks neat. Mona simps might disagree though lmao
@@suhudude it really does
@@Tyty-lr7bh “I love Megu- Hu Tao”
my favourite characters in the game are fischl and hu tao, and they both are so amazingly well done and they are very interesting
when i first played the game it was hu tao's banner and i fell in love with her design and persona at the first sight
Hu Tao is one of the few Liyue characters that embodies a lot more of traditional Chinese aesthetics (except the shorts but hey thighs save lives) so I appreciate her a lot for that and super kudos on analyzing her name correctly. It bothered me a bit because English only players weren't privy to the meaningful name but I didn't think it was worth correcting people on. Liyue is still pronounced incorrectly even by the VAs so I guess it's better to let it be the unofficial pronunciation in English. Anyway, thanks a million for putting out a video so at least the info is out there!
@Wxl tru
@Wxl I think a few VA's come close to saying it right but I don't remember who and I'm to lazy to check
@@IDKman5020 I think Albedo's Eng VA said it pretty accurately.
@@novi_38432 yeah I think ningguang's VA was also accurate but it's been a few months since I finished the story
yea my friends and i know the correct pronunciation for the words but its too hard for our tongue, so we just speak the easy way as long its understandable, same as few characters in the game like Diona and Diluc
I like Hu Tao's hat, i wish they'd sell those as a merchanise
If you really love it why not just make one yourself?
I mean, not everyone have the know-how or the means to replicate hats xD and thats not mentioning time.
@@KOKOBC they might not have the skills required for it
I also want a boo tao plushie!
@@best_username6846 i wouldnt use real flower since eventually they would die
the second flower is actually a chrysanthemum and not a spider lily but i’d see how you would get them confused lmao
lilies and chrysanthemums are also common funeral flowers in china, chrysanthemum’s being the go-to flower ^^
I was about to point out the same thing 👍
It's a little strange how thin they drew it, as chrysanthemums are typically bulky flowers-- at least the one's I've seen for shrines/funerals. Even the spider variation seems more luscious...
@@planted101 actually chrysanthemums have many varieties, and some have petals that look more like this, less bunched up... My guess is that they chose this design to make it more distinguishable, the clothes move a lot and fuller petaled ones might have just resembled a white blob when the character's moving
@@gabidois You have a point. Their choice may have been to make the flower more distinguishable.
Totally unrelated, but chrysanthemums are also quite delicious
I love how at 1:36 Venti and Xingqiu managed to sneak their way onto the “all female eyes” list.
BAHAHA
Lmao
venti isn’t a female…?
@@itzcrystalzz I thought he was when I first saw him too, but no, he is male.
@@snickers9667 tbf Venti just took form of his friend
I once read that, on her closing chain finisher, the small pose she does (where she puts her hands together) is a gesture with connotations to "passing away" in Taoism. It's something I read on twitter, and Twitter is Twitter, so take it with a large lump of salt because I can't confirm it.
"往生"(Wang sheng) actually means more than just death, it means "the transformation of mortal realm into another", thereby relieving one's soul from mortal limitations and suffering and entering a happier, better realm beyond life.
In which, it's actually a positive perspective to look at one's "passing away".
Given the context where Hu Tao Only does that hand gesture after she Finishes her attacks(the game assumes you've completed the battle and executed every single enemy) from the way I understand it...
That shows Hu Tao actually Values the lives of her enemies and does the hand gesture("合掌/合十", He Zhang/He Shi) shows it as a form of respect and prays their souls may relieve from mortal suffering and entering a happier, better realm beyond life.
Hi! Uh so for any non Chinese or are just not aware Taoism is like a tradition or culture 1 or 3. Its all around idea if i’m not mistaken is living a simple life while being selfless and practicing simplicity.
Yeah it's true.You can also see the gesture in her pv.(In fact I'm right a native Chinese who see the video on bilibili and come to tell about the "Wang Sheng"gesture)
Taoist here, yup I do that symbol as a gesture of respect to the dead. Not so cheerily ofc, not like how hu tao does it
@@kboombite whats the name of the hand gesture if i may ask?
Imagine Hu Tao being released after more than one week and here you are with tons of research. Thank you for being this dedicated.
Well she was leaked since November
There's actually another Easter egg for the 十只兔子 song (10 Rabbits), I saw it on another comment here: ( czcams.com/video/GMUI8eopuJk/video.html )
Also, in the Chinese version of Hu Tao's PV, instead of saying "because they want to be seelies when they grow up" she actually says "Why are butterflies our guide? It's because their surname is also Hu!", a word play on the Chinese word, Hudie (蝴蝶) which has the same pronunciation as Hu in Hu Tao
The same thing goes for the Japanese trailer where she says butterfly (chouchou) can also be called kochou which shares the same kanji as her Hu and so she feels a connection to them.
@@joshuarae1996 woahh, cool
Go to the video, Press 8.
Cheat sheet to the chinese ver of the song, easy.
@@joshuarae1996 true, kanji is Chinese characters
i love how in depth mihoyo goes when developing characters, there's so many layers its mindblowing. thanks for taking your time for breaking it down for those of us who do not have the brain capacity to do That and in such a simple way. i'm obsessed with your content!!
Its as lazy cheap and braindead to instead of putting effort where it actually matters waste it on naming and costume designing and then all characters look still pain to look at and the same and also almost naked with loli bodie anyway
Even if I'm not going for her and instead waiting for a rerun, I really like her personality. Plus her design, especially her eyes are cute. Not to mention all of her VAs really bring out her personality.
The va did the job extremely well. Well, in japanese though. Idk about the others though
@@raihanrusli2720 english is cute too imo
@@raihanrusli2720 Ah, yes, best girl VA strikes again!
@@raihanrusli2720 English and Japanese do a wonderful job... I don't listen to CN or Korea VAs.
:)
Another interesting thing about Hu tao that nobody talks about (probably because it's such an obvious thing) is her vision being pyro, this seems very fitting for her considering cremation is a thing.
Jeez they really thought out this character huh
Even her character in general is always on the tipping point of cute/creepy
her vision is probably from natlan,
@@nekoangel1992 Her vision has a Liyue frame, soo the vision is from Liyue, not from Natlan
@@migantomon117 then where did she get the pyro vision zhongli couldn’t have given it to her
@@nekoangel1992 I dont think visions are handed out personally by an archon
when i first saw hu tao, she reminded me of hanako kun
Yeah me too!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw that :))
Ikr? XD
My friends and I legit call her female hanako. I think what they’re based on makes their design so similar
me too
Ningguang, hutao, ganyu: dislike fighting
Big numbers go brrrrrrr
They are so strong that fighting becomes boring
Ganyu: Im vegan
Also Ganyu: Timmie's birds go brrr
@@kevintang5473 XD
Fun fact, Red spider lily is known as 彼岸花 bi’an hua in Chinese, which literally means “flower that grows on the other side/bank”. In Chinese mythology, the places near the edge of the world of the dead and life are filled with this type of flower.
When HuTao needs to fight.
Hutao: Aiya.
LMAO
7:22 this hand gesture she makes is actually a symbol representing 往生 (wang sheng, same as funeral parlor name) in Chinese Daoism, she’s basically telling us to die lmao
also, the joke about Seelies and butterflies was originally a pun on her surname in Chinese (“hu die” are butterflies in Chinese), they obviously had to change it for english audiences though
From another perspective, the hand gesture "合掌/合十" she make can also be represented as a form of greeting and respect in Chinese Buddhism, which also provides an image of humility.
However, this hand gesture, "合掌"(He Zhang) Did Not originate from Buddhism, but rather Hinduism, which later widely used in regular Buddhist mannerism.
In Hinduism, the right hand is considered as a "sacred" hand, while the left hand is considered as a "dirty/non-sacred" hand. Hence, they have different uses for each hand with a hidden meaning. However, once both hands was Combined together, it combines the Duality(both sacred and non-sacred aspect) of humanity itself, where it becomes a representation of the most fundamental and most truthful form of humanity, to show that they have nothing to hide.
@@maxplaysgamez-sharesgaming1756 I didn’t know that, that was very interesting thank you!
This was all an amazing read
These kinds of comments are lovely☺ i love to learn more about cultures i appreciate so thank you both for providing it
+@@pumkinpatchwork No problem, thank you for sharing the Taoism perspective as well.👍
actually in chinese taoism, peach wood 桃木 is a superb material for making tools to fight against evil spirits, like peach wood sword 桃木劍which is a very famous weapon in the category. HuTao’s symbol is peach blossom, so it resembles her born ability to ward off evil. Peach also symbolises immortality and long life, good example would be the tradition of eating peach shaped buns called 長壽包 on birthdays or important events. Also, I think Hu Tao’s tao is a smart word play cuz it can mean peach 桃 in chinese and resembles taoism in english.
I never realized I was straight up knocking the souls out of Hilicurls
I love Hu Tao.
1. She's cute
2. She's cute
3. Cute hat
4. OP as fuck
5. She's thick
6. Cool voice lines
7. Funny
8. Cool eyes
9. Waifu
10. Business owner
A simple man
5. She’s both flat and thicc at the same time
@@RazanAr51 Balanced, as all things should be.
@@RazanAr51 flat and thicc are the ultimate combo
Her family symbol is a burning flower. It represents her wildfire nature of the cycle of life from death. Another thing to consider is HuTao is super old. She became funeral director as a teenager, but states that the years have flown by since. Her youthful appearance is most likely a result of the same magic she uses in battle to absorb her enemy's spirits to heal herself. She's a really grim character.
She’s canonically 19 i’m pretty sure, so i don’t think she can use her life stealing powers to sustain her youthfulness like some sort of witch xD
@@madmantheepic7278 Canonically her age is not given anywhere. The only reference you get is in her friendship 5 dialogue where she says she "Took over the crematorium from her family as soon as she could, and the years have just flown by since."
@@saibaepsilon still a stretch to say that she can extend her life using powers given by mere visions, her lore suggests the only power that was passed down through her lineage was the ability to cross “the border” and nothing resembling life stealing powers. Let’s also consider the fact she hates Baizhu for trying to obtain immortality - ie. trying to extend his life, all of that concludes that Hutao either don’t have such powers or even if she had, she wouldn’t use it to lengthen her life.
That absolutely makes no sense. Hu Tao became the Leaders of the parlor in very early age and some years have passed, which doesn't imply her being "super old". And you clearly don't understand Hu Taos character at all. Eternal life is the farthest away from Hu Tao's interest. She lives everyday confronting deaths and she herself said that the living and dead should be separated. She values life just as much as death and she seeks satisfaction from ghosts being able to leave the living world with no regrets. So why by all means would she be interested in a long or eternal life?? She even dislikes Baizhu for seeking that wish and she wanted to bury Qiqi because she is initially dead.
This is cap
I have never simped so hard for an anime girl I don't even have.
Fun fact: Activating hu tao's skill makes her smirk for a moment which makes my heart go HHNNGG
Since your analysis about Xiao's design and others Genshin characters, I've been following your channel. It's amazing how much symbolism you can find and history you can find on those little details.
Hu Tao's twin tails, loose sleeves, and split tail coats also make her silhouette look like butterfly wings when she's in motion. (sprinting, jumping, gliding, etc.) The two straps behind her hat serves as the butterfly's antennae.
Taking motion into account when designing a character is always a huge plus. Her design is currently the most creative imo.
Well, what you said could be true but I don't think it was that complicated. The loose sleeve thingy is actually very common in traditional chinese costumes. The straps behind her hat are also considered standards to the hats of chinese government offcials in the time of Imperial China.
6:32 Yes it is carefree but her free hand is being used as a counterbalance to when she fights, also the way she switches hands constantly mid-combo makes each attack really fluid.
3:49 i love how you visualized her grandpa as tyler1
I personally see Hu Tao’s iris as a flower, similar to her blood blossom
"all female eyes"
me: is that venti?
and Xingqiu lol
Yes it is.
sorry for my bad English。harmony hexagram hat means“乾坤泰卦帽”in chinese，“泰卦”is consists of“乾”and“坤”，both 乾 and坤 are consist of 3“爻”(阳：ー阴：--)，add to 6，meanwhile，“泰卦”means “harmony”。so you might be confused by the translation
i really need more people to look at this game and analize it in its art and desing department (also music and shit) because no one talks about it in depth, great vid
3:04 you can actually see this symbol on chongyun's design too!
yeah, its ☳☵☶ idk what it means though. I hope RedFlaim could do chongyun design breakdown next video
YOO he's my boy and I never even noticed that! that's sick
maybe I can make a good video on him when 1.4 comes out :V
@@RedFlaim nice! He's my main dps and i found out a few days ago when i draw a fanart of him, i haven't finish it though xD
I don't think we'll ever get a character as good as her tbh.
Mihoyo: Hold my beer
I love Ayaka’s design but i dont have high hopes for her after getying Hutao tbh xD, hopefully Mihoyo will surpass my expectations.
Zhong Li is still my personal favourite but Hu Tao is alright
@@bruhmoment4521 I also meant personality-wise. I bet some will get close tho.
@@RagingPeanutButter Me: I can't. You just drank it. ;)
As a person who major in China Studies, I have to say your work was so perfectly done, espeacially the part you analyzed the divinatory symbol from Yijing. These effort made your video better than presentations done by some of my classmates lol. Many thanks for your sharing, that is really interesting.
Hu Tao‘s design is one of the things i love most about her. Iam so in love with the flowers and butterflies in her animations and her dash is sooo smooth i‘m glad she is my main
Mihoyo puts so much details into the character design and story, like I'm amazed how they managed to come up with all this. Well done mihoyo
1. Hu is just a common surname in Chinese, I doubt it's used to implying anything
2. Tao usually means "桃花", Peach blossom. And I would argue the "plum blossom" on her hat was peach, so was the shape of her pupil. Note that neither peach nor plum is directly related to funerals in Chinese culture
3. Her ascension material silk flower looks very close to the "red spider lily" aka "higan flower" or "彼岸花" in Chinese
4. I agree that reusing animations is not necessarily a bad thing, but her polearm clipped through her sleeve on weapon page. And this is a bad thing
5. The Origin of Hilitune is not a real "nursery rhyme" in China. In fact, it was an online "dark fairytale" story and went viral in China ~10 year ago. The rabbit story was intentionally made “猎奇” (strange or absurd so people would be curious) and pretended to be a challenging detective story (thus you see many people explaining the story even now). But in reality, it was just a boring and easy (and stupid) dark story that meant to be a clickbait
That mast one about the "nursery rhyme" is really interesting wonder how Mihoyo found that
No. 5 tho, since it's not actually a nursery rhyme, but rather just an internet dark story gone viral actually fits the lore perfectly since in genshin, hu tao is the one that made this song and somehow it gets viral too. Viral enough to reach dusky ming, before she died years ago. I wonder when did she died, because this might be an overlook from the game developers if dusky ming died years before hu tao even born yet somehow knew about this song anyway. Or I'm overthinking it and it's just that the song is so catchy even a ghost remembered it.
@@sbagas8369 I agree it fits HuTao, and I'm not sure whether Ming learned it before she died (so there's a possible answer). However, I hate that rhyme so much because I was sooo fed up, just like when you see a really bad and really old meme suddenly get popular again. Every time I hear it in game, I remembers how annoying those was. Also, it was a bad rhyme for 2 reasons: 1. it's not appealing to listen to. 2. ppl was eager to show off that they're not too stupid (say, if you ask how many rectangles in "田", it's not hard, but ppl really want to show off that they found more than 5)
@@FelixFU_v2 you mean "squares"? Because by definition there are definitely more than 5. Also, reusing memes is only condidered annoying in China.
外国并没有玩烂梗的说法。
As for the Harmony Hexagram Hat, I would like to make a small contribution:
The I Ching hexagram mentioned here is not the 13rd one, but rather the 11th one. I can see how the English translation can misdirect people really bad, since the two's meanings have quite subtle difference. The 13rd one means "harmony between people", or perhaps "great fellowship", while the 11th one means "harmony between heaven and earth", or perhaps "everything goes smoothly". The Chinese version clearly stated the hat's name as 乾坤泰卦帽, lit. "The Hat with the Hexagram of Heaven and Earth". This possibly goes with Hu Tao's claim that this hat will bring good fortune to her and her parlor, as the hexagram itself would predict. The number 13 should mean nothing here, since for Chinese the unlucky number is actually 4 (which in Chinese sounds like "death"), 13 is only unlucky for Catholics.
the amount of detail and story that goes into Genshin is astounding, I love and will always love this game
Amazing video! I didn't notice the "soul out of body" effect on opponents hit by her elemental burst before. Nice find!
On the butterfly lore, Hu Tao actually made a joke about her own name in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean videos because the similar pronunciations of "butterfly" and "Hu Tao" in these three languages. The joke cannot be replicated in English so they changed it into a seelie joke instead. There's no seelie references in C/J/K versions of the video at all.
One thing most people don't notice is that between her basic attacks she drops the spear sometimes, for example when she slams the spear into the ground, she leaves the spear mid-air, makes a spin and catches it to slam it to the ground, I feel Hu tao's basic attacks more like a dance
People : genshin impact is just zelda breast of the waifu
Mihoyo : _is twenty-five parallel universes ahead of everyone_
lmfao agree
Wow,,,, I love this type of content. Dissecting a character to this depth is just bravo fr. Hu Tao immediately became my favorite after I read her lore before she even got released, always found it so fascinating how her talents/skills also were so fitting to her theme of 'the circle of life and death'.
Thank you this just a makes me love hu tao even more even though I’m not pulling for her, honestly I love all the characters. Thank you for taking time to make this video!
往生堂, wangsheng parlor, actually has very deep religious meaning. 往生wangsheng refers to those who dies, they will go another realm of joy and happiness, aka Buddhist heaven. But this is the highest achievement of any Buddhist.
0:59
When i heard that Hú means Recklessly, Foolishly, or Wildly, i immediately remembered that Staff of Homa's Passive is called "Reckless Cinnabar" , so i guess the staff really is meant for Hu Tao
6:25 I've been a Hu Tao main since she came out and I had never noticed the soulf of the enemieess omgggg IT LOOKS AMAZING
I really love the fact that Genshin characters' design and lore really influence their Moveset. During Xiao's Ult, he recieves damage overtime. Mihoyo did this not only to "balance" his gameplay, but also because of his Karma based on his lore
I pulled for her and i gotta say her mechanic is very challenging specially on mobile but I've never regretted it. I gotta say i never thought that I'll fall in love with the same character twice specially after her story quest.
6:30 Thank you for explaining, I thought that too and could never pin down why but that comparison with Xiao makes so much sense
For people confused about what the heck was happening in the video where the ten rabbits song was playing,
It's actually recorded footage from a game by another Chinese developer named "Identity V", the game collabed with Persona and Danganronpa which is why you could see them
wow, I've been using her ever since her banner dropped but I never noticed how enemies souls leave them briefly, that's such a cool detail!! I love how much detail went into Hu Tao in general, it makes me love her just that much more. thank you for this video!
you're one of my favorites now lol im so glad that i'm not the only one who reads into every character, their lore, their design, and their gameplay.
it gives me a sense of satisfaction when i know where characters come from and why they are the way they are. the thought process behind the stories and characters in genshin is amazing jdsfksd.
Another fun detail is how Hu Tao's birthday is on the 15th of July, because the 15th day of the 7th month of the Lunisolar calendar is that of Ghost Day (鬼节), where the spirits of the dead come out from the lower realm to visit the living. It's also possibly why Qiqi's name directly translates to Seven-seven, since the seventh month is the ghost month.
The c1-c6 constellation names in the original Chinese was also a poem about funeral cremation, or more specifically mourning and remembrance of the deceased. In short poem form it describes a butterfly being attracted to the flowerbed of the dead and burning along with it, with the butterfly being a symbolism of someone being at a funeral of their loved one, who witness and goes through the process of the final sendoff, where in the mourning and unwillingness to depart a little part of themselves is also carried away by the passing of a loved one.
The dislikes are Qiqi’s alt accounts.
the accounts qiqi made but she forgot the password
@@NootN00t Maybe she had them on her notebook
@@tianchengshuai6925 I wonder when she’s going to need to buy a new notebook.
@@terrylap6132 At the time she forgets she has one
@@tianchengshuai6925 She’s going to end up with quite a lot of notebooks if she forgets all of them.
10:05 I love seeing IDV, pleasant surprise 😆
I absolutely love all the detail poured into the genshin characters, especially with Hu Tao. I absolutely love all the symbolism in her design. So much love has been poured into this game
wow, obviously I'm blown away by the amount of thought put in these characters but I'm even more blown away by the animations, like what you mentioned how Xiao holds his hand near his chest like in realistic martial arts, while Hu tao stretches it and stuff like that.
Insanely good video! you're absolutely my favourite genshin youtuber :)
thanks for the spooky warning. other videos just throw creepy stuff at you without warning and I'm easily disturbed and thus kept up at night
YES pls do more characters analysis because Genshin Impact character concepts are amazing
I agree
the flower on her coat is also the in-game silk flower, one of her ascension materials .
Glaze lilies.
These are the types of videos we need more GI content creators to make! Thanks for the hard work! Cant wait to see more
After browsing through FB and getting all annoyed at people who are complaining about not enough freebies from the game, I am absolutely thankful to have watched this video.
Thank you for appreciating the kind of effort and details going into this free to play game. Even I, as a Chinese, would never have known about the hexagram thing if you hadn’t brought it up. ❤️
You should leave those FB groups its nothing but drama everyday there.
@@Cross-hx1wp haha, i'm there for the funny videos and stuff. but occasionally the toxic stuff comes on your wall on somewhere in the comments. I just happened to see one today while scrolling fb, so I immediately left fb and came to youtube and saw this video. Made my day better.
another thing in hu tao’s elemental burst is that when the ghost appears, it has a question mark to the right of its head. this was a very interesting video as I didnt realize most of these things，and i am a HUGE hu tao simp. keep up the good work!
You forget about the most important thing, in 7:23 look at HuTao hand that's is the hand sign from Taoism call 往生印 wang sheng yin that's mean the hand sign of dead
Recently I read an analyse from China fan group, telling how Liyue Harbor is distributed according to Yijing and Bagua, and I would like to make a video too😁 just tell people some interesting things in Genshin.
Can you send me a link of it? I'm really interested in it!
@@sidsea I am still planning~ 你可以去原神观测枢的微信公众号，找几天前的文章。我打算把那个文章做成英文版本的视频。（当然，要声明版权）
Since people already did the chinese version, in the Japanese version of the seelie joke she says that "Butterflies (chouchou) are also called "kochou" so she feels a connection to them. This id probably because kochou (胡蝶) shares the first character in Hu Tao's (胡桃) name.
THE AMOUNT OF WORK THAT GOES INTO BOTH THIS GAME AND THSES VIDEOS IS SOMETHING TO PRAISE
Thank you for making this. She's my favorite character.
This video is another reminder I need to grind my Hu Tao. I was missing a bunch of the ascension mats but I finally got a good set of artifacts for her.
Thank you for your video. As a Chinese, I just want to point out that the second flower on Hu Tao’s cloth is not spider lily. It’s chrysanthemum. In my impression, chrysanthemum is the only flower used on funerals in China traditionally. If you search for some pictures of chrysanthemums, you will find that they are more consistent with the patterns. Chrysanthemums also appears on other Wangsheng staffs’ cloth.
And for spider lily, although now I know it’s also a flower representing death, I think most Chinese learned this by Japanese animation just like me. Actually, it’s a symbol that we rarely use in China.
@@alisonnnnnnwho 不会吧, 彼岸花挺知名的啊？虽然是跟佛教的传说而不是道教的。
I swear her smile. That damn smile
I love how at 6:29, after she smacked the hilichurls with her ghost and the first damage after that was "911" 😂
Wow, I must say all the analyzing videos you’ve done are just incredible, but I wanna add one thing that her constellation names in Chinese are literally a complete poem and it tells a story as well, and I don’t think they did a good job on translating them, but I can’t blame them because I know how hard it is to translate, not to mention it’s a poem, one of the hardest to translate. For example her first constellation is called ‘crimson bouquet’, it only covers the meaning of the first 3 character of the Chinese version, which has 7 characters.
Man...this made me very happy because i know how hard it is to design a character and full on background stories. Im glad you took time to research on her design and everything else!!
After watching this video and the other video of you explaining how much goes into making a genshin character I am super surprised on how many they released so far.
Also I just wanna say I am so glad you are covering lore and character design stuff for genshin because I really love that part of the game and no one talks about it.
If you look closely, Hu Tao's fighting style and some of her fighting movement is quite similar to Xingqiu.
I had no idea Hoyoverse put so much detail into making hu tao's design be connected to afterlife and death related stuff even her song and animations
5:01 the flower on the left is most probably red spider lily which symbolize death, especially in japan and china, and would make perfect sense with lilies on the right side symbolizing life and rebirth as you said.
I love these specifically because they can also help other character design artists figure out ways to design their own characters, most of the time i add on details without much rhyme or reason and finding such intricate connections like the ones in this video to make a perfectly referenced character is much more difficult than many are led to believe.
I aspire to get to this level of storytelling with my designs, it really gets me excited to learn more about a character when so much is told from their looks alone.
Maybe do one for Zhongli? I love your in-depth research on Hutao and want to see the care into the Geo God
I find it cool when she finishes attacking she does a hand symbol at the end that means "pass away" or "die"
The Chinese word for butterflies “蝴蝶”
The Chinese name of hutao “胡桃”
虫+胡=蝴蝶 which if you watch the Chinese trailer he mentioned why the “butterfly”
The soul leaving the body is actually an indicator to which ones contributed to healing Hu Tao since she can only heal off from 5 targets
daaamn I like that connection you made between her fluctuating health and the cycle of life and death. super cool how they incorporated the theme into her playstyle.
I really love that 4th attack animation reset, spinning her spear around her back, and the 5th was so cute, I'm happy that you showed that ❤️
I never noticed the ult animation before! She literally slaps them so hard their soul leaves their body!
knowing that hu tao's hilitune is based off of creepy songs in other languages makes me really with they went with ring around the rosie for the english translation instead lol
This in-depth analysis of one of my favorite characters Genshin has to offer has been a real treat! I LOVE IT!
One detail I found after I watched this video is that when looking Hu Tao from her back, there are symmetrical sides (two attachment from her hat, two bang of her hair and her clothes also split into two side) which represent butterfly.
One thing I don't see a lot of people talking about is her black nail polish, which is a taboo I usually hear about during the Hungry Ghost Festival.
Basically this festival is when ghosts and spirits from the lower realm (or hell) visit the living, and it's discouraged to wear black nail polish as it is said that only the dead have black nails.
So they could mistake you for one of their own and drag you down with them.
Plus, black is seen as a colour of bad luck in China (and other Asian cultures), but I guess its fitting for Hu Tao.
6:20 IF YOU PAUSE HER FACE AT THE RIGHT TIME IT'S SO CUTE AAA
Thank you so much for making this! You must have put a lot of effort into this :)
You Deserve alot of attention makin this 1 video, came him from akron btw you bave my 1000000000% respect bro ✌
Also pressed sub cuz why not
Props to the character designers and animators for adding these tiny yet interesting details :)
I’m so happy you did this with hu tao!! she is my favorite character and I love your videos, they are always super interesting!
i think the reason why the song plays over gameplay of identity v ( 10:12 ) is because the game is popular in china and is a horror game similar to dead by daylight. never thought id see it, though.
So about her animation where her burst swoop the enemy's soul, i think when swiping a ruin guard/hunter, there's no soul coming out, means that ruin guard isn't a living creature